Gaelic Athletic Association

For the Hibernians, it was a baptism by fire.

No one expected the Allentown Hibernians to win their first hurling match ever. But in the new team’s debut Sunday against the Philadelphia Shamrocks, they sure made it interesting.

The Shamrocks finally put the team from Lehigh away, 1 goal and 4 points to the Hibernians’ 1 goal and 1 point.

(In hurling, a goal equals three points. It is scored when the ball, or sliotar, sails into the net between two uprights. A single point is scored when the ball goes over the net but between the uprights. So another way of looking at the score is: 7-4.)

The Shamrocks’ team captain Frank O’Meara likes to win, but he was nonetheless pleased to see a new team come out on the field with such fire and give his players a real run for their money.

“They did very well,” he said. “I was very impressed with them.” More important, he added, they seemed impressed with themselves, and their fine performance ought to encourage them to keep learning and refining their game.

Not bad for a bunch of athletes who, not all that long ago, wouldn’t have known what a sliotar was if it smacked them in the head. (They know now, though, I bet.)

The Hibernians will get another chance at the Shamrocks on Sunday, June 1, part of a round-robin tournament that could include a team from D.C.

As for the team from Allentown, their first hurling match left its mark.

The Hibernians’ Chris Farrell, who was making something of a reputation for himself (albeit involuntarily) for injuring his teammates during practice, got a taste of his own medicine Sunday on the field at Cardinal Dougherty. “Before the game (teammate, no relation) Joe Farrell told me they had taken to calling me “the hatchet man” because of the injuries I’ve caused in practice,” Farrell said. “Ironically, I took the chop during the game when one of the Shamrock players chopped right on my knee joint with his hurl, following through on a shot that I was just a split second too late for (apparently). Hurts like hell and it’s pretty swollen today, but I don’t think any permanent damage was done and I will be back to fight another day.”

O’Meara, for one will be heartened to see them back out on the field. It’s tough keeping this native Irish sport going here in the States, but with the addition of an eager new team—and continuing dedication on the part of the 20 Americans on the Shamrocks’ team—”the thing is going to purr like a kitten. And we’re going to make sure that it does.”

The Shamrocks hurler holds the sliotar in one hand and the hurley in the other during last year's championship game.

Once you get past the jokes (“Hurling? Sure, I can do that! One night of drinking and I’m there”), hurling is an ancient game that encompasses many aspects of soccer, hockey, lacrosse, a little baseball, cricket, and, as one wag put it, “assault with a deadly weapon.”

The deadly weapon in this case is the hurley, the axe-shaped stick the players carry and use to hurl a small ball called a sliotar (prounounced slitter) between their opponents’ goal post—either over the crossbar for one point, or under it into a net guarded by a goalkeeper for three points.

You can catch the ball with your hand but you can’t carry it for more than four steps before you either have to strike it in the air or on the ground with your hurly. You can kick or hand-pass it to another of your teammates. If you want to carry the ball for more than three steps, you need to bounce or balance it on the end of your stick. You can use shouldering, as long as it’s side to side (no charging or tackling allowed). Usually the players don’t wear protective padding though many wear a helmet (sometimes with a faceguard). And the pace? Fast. It almost makes ice hockey look a game of golf.

Check out more photos of the 2007 championship (won by the Philadelphia Shamrocks).

• What is Hurling (Pt 1) You Tube Video
• What is Hurling (Pt 2) You Tube Video
• What is Hurling (Pt 3) You Tube Video

Neophyte hurler Christopher Farrell: Be afraid. Be very afraid. Photo by Michele Horon

Fair warning to the Philadelphia Shamrocks hurlers: The Allentown team you’re facing on Sunday, May 18, at Cardinal Dougherty High School may be brand new, but they’re dangerous.

Take just one player for example. That would be Christopher Farrell, at 45, playing a game that, until recently, he’d never heard of. “My first two practices with this team, oh man, I knocked a guy’s shoulder out of its socket and the second practice I hit a guy square in the face with the ball.” Actually, what he did, he told me later in hurling language, was “hit a sliothar (ball) straight into his nose — it was a bloody mess.”

And the guy he hit is the only Irish-born member of the new Pennsylvania Hurling Club’s team, the Allentown Hibernians, Joe Farrell (no relation), and the only one who’d ever played the game before but who wasn’t wearing a face guard at the time. He’ll never do that again.

“My main thing is bicycling,” says Christopher Farrell, by way of an apology. In fact, Farrell is seriously into racing, which he does regularly at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome, with its banked tracks and, quite often, Olympic level athletes. A “recovering fat guy,” Farrell lost 45 pounds while cycling, making him a poster child for his employer, Rodale, Inc., publisher of health and fitness magazines such as Men’s Health and Bicycling.

Oddly enough, Farrell got interested in hurling because of Irish stepdancing. His two youngest daughters are involved on a competitive level with the O’Grady-Quinlan Academy of Irish Dance in Lehigh County. Another “dance dad,” Jeff Purtell, a PGA golf professional for a decade, had gotten interested in hurling and figured that he might find some like-minded guys among those who spend weekends driving long distances to watch their daughters jig in $600 dresses. “I ran into Jeff at an event a couple of months ago, around St. Paddy’s Day, and he asked me if I’d like to try it out. They really need guys and I really need the exercise so I said okay.”

Farrell is the “old guy” on a team that also includes high school and college players, as well as 44-year-old Dublin-born Joe Farrell of Whitehall Township, their one experienced player. He admits he’s never even seen a hurling game “except for some low res” films on YouTube. “It looks fast,” he says. Farrell and his wife have five kids and he’s completing his master’s degree “so I really don’t want to get injured.”

Given his performances at practices, it seems like it’s the Shamrocks who need to be worried about that.

Come out and support hurling and see all the action on Sunday, May 18, at Cardinal Dougherty High School Field, starting at 4 PM.